Hariharan, associating with Lesle Lewis, formed Colonial Cousins, a two-member band. They have cut many private music albums and also scored music for few feature films in Tamil cinema and Bollywood cinema.

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Born in Mumbai, Hariharan grew up in Mumbai and has bachelor's degrees in science and law. He is fluent in speaking Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and English. He did his collegiate studies from S.I.E.S. College. The son of renowned Carnatic vocalists, Shrimati Alamelu and the late H.A.S. Mani (full name:Anantha Subramani Iyer), he inherited his parents' musical talents. Alamelu was Hariharan's first guru (mentor). From her, he picked up Carnatic music skills. He was also exposed to Hindustani music from a young age. In his teens, inspired by the songs of Mehdi Hassan , Hariharan developed a passion for ghazals and started training in Hindustani music from Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. He used to put in thirteen hours of singing practice everyday.

At the start of his career, Hariharan did the concert circuit and also performed on TV. He sang for a number of TV serials (e.g., Junoon). In 1977, he won the top prize in the "All India Sur Singaar Competition" and was promptly signed on by the late music director Jaidev to sing for his new Hindi film Gaman (1978). His debut song "Ajeeb Sa neha Mujh Par Guzar gaya yaaron" in that movie became such a hit that it won him an Uttar Pradesh State Film Award, as well as a National Award nomination.[1]

Hariharan is one of the foremost Indian ghazal singers and composers with more than thirty albums to his credit.[4] In his early career, he cut several successful ghazal albums, writing most of the scores himself. One of Hariharan's first ghazal albums was Aabshar-e-Ghazal with Asha Bhosle, which went gold in sales.[4] Another outstanding ghazal album was Gulfam, which not only hit double platinum in sales but also fetched Hariharan the Diva Award for the Best Album of the Year in 1995.[4] The other major ghazal albums by him are Hazir (1992), Jashn (1996), Halka Nasha (1996), Paigham (1997),Kaash(2000), Lahore Ke Rang Hari Ke Sang (2005), and Guftagoo.[4] His live concert recordings, Hariharan in Concert (1990), Saptarishi (1996) and Swar Utsav (2001) were run away successes. His latest ghazal album is Lafzz... (2008). Hariharan worked with tabla maestro Zakir Hussain on his album Hazir.[4] The album Lahore Ke Rang Hari Ke Sang with renowned ghazal composers from Pakistan won him rave reviews and critical acclaim inside and outside India. A.R. Rahman was an avid listener of his ghazals way before roping him in to sing his first song in Tamil film music, "Thamizha Thamizha", for the film Roja.

The year 1996 was a career milestone; he formed the band Colonial Cousins with Mumbai-based composer and singer Lesle Lewis.[5] Their first album, Colonial Cousins was a fusion album and was the first Indian act to be featured on MTV Unplugged.[6] It won a string of awards including the MTV Indian Viewers' Choice award and Billboard Award for the Best Asian Music Group.[4][6] By this single album, Hariharan established himself as one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. The next albums by this band were The Way We Do It (1998) and Aatma (2001) but were fairly noticed. Colonial Cousins released their fourth studio album "Once More" on 29 October 2012 under the label Universal. The 2009 Tamil film Modhi Vilayadu had score and soundtrack composed by Colonial Cousins.[7] They also scored the 2010 Tamil film Chikku Bukku.

In 2014 he launched his official website.[13] He is also now active on Social Media with his facebook page garnering more than 1.7 million likes. He tweets often with latest tweet count reaching more than 2300[14][15]

He is currently appearing in a music show in Jaya TV named Hari Yudan Naan which is aired every Thursday, Friday and Saturdays at 9:00 pm.[16]

Hariharan collaborated with Sarangan Sriranganathan for "Sruthi" at the Sydney Hill Centre and the Melbourne Robert Blackwood Hall Australia in 2011[17] Hariharan also unofficially released ghazal singer Adithya Srinivasan's first international single 'Gham e Duniya' at the Gateway Hotel, Bangalore.[18] Hariharan has been selected as judge for Asianet Star Singer Season 6 programme, a very popular music contest television show for upcoming singers in Malayalam.

New Marathi movie "Shyamche Vadil" was released on 12 December 2012 which was a major success. "Saare Punha Athave" song was sung by Hariharan.

^Although he made his debut a long time ago, Hariharan was first noticed in a duet with Kavita Krishnamurthy in "Hai Mubarak Aaj ka Din" from Boxer (1984), which was composed by R D Burman. Hariharan. Hummaa.com. Retrieved on 1 January 2012.